THE REAL DISH ON ANDREW SULLIVAN
Andrew Sullivan’s announcement that he’s going on a blog hiatus has prompted alert bloggers to revisit his bogus fund-raising claims from last summer.
“The good news is that our traffic keeps going up. The bad news is that our bandwidth costs have also risen, and although I was hoping to go a full year without asking for more support, the site needs some extra cash to keep going…”
–Andrew Sullivan, July 26, 2004
I commented on the issue here and here. Sullivan never responded to me or the many other bloggers who called him out. Instead, he named one of his little “awards” after me.
Now, in response to Sully’s post about going on holiday, Tim Blair–who contributed to Sully’s pledge drives–has published a scathing criticism of the fund-raising ruse:
Planning his vacation, Sullivan thanks readers for “the financial support that has kept this blog alive and well.” (Two hundred grand and he still couldn’t afford a blogroll? Way to share the bloggy wealth, Andrew.) Other sites—many other sites—have done more with less.
Sullivan’s massive blog earnings have ended up funding a Euro-Middle Eastern stroll with time off to write a book. His next pledge drive might deliver a substantially lower return.
Radley Balko at The Agitator also weighs in:
Sullivan by my count has had at least three “pledge drives” in the last few years, in which he begs his readers to give him money. He bemoans the cost of bandwidth for maintaining his site (though IT critics have said it shouldn’t cost more than $500 or so per year), even though he chooses to maintain it, and sells ads and has about a half-dozen well-paying writing gigs on the side.
Nevertheless, Sullivan continues to ask his readers to support his blogging with dollars, and they continue to do so. One drive brought in $120,000. Another, $80,000. His most recent drive was just six months ago. It was his second of the year, and it triggered quite a bit of criticism from his fellow bloggers.
I don’t really have a problem with pledge drives (I had one once, though it was for a specific purpose), but two in one year seems excessive, particularly if the first one brought in more money than most of his readers make in a year.
And now? Now Sullivan is quitting blogging, indefinitely…Call me envious (and I am — I’d certainly be greatful to make a hundred grand a year blogging), but this strikes me as a pretty schmucky move.
If I had given Sullivan money as recently as last July on his promises of continued insight and daily dishing, I think I’d be in line for a refund right about now.
Farrah at CamEdwards.com adds:
I have no qualms with bloggers asking for financial support for their sites. To run an effective, popular blog takes a significant amount of time. Time that is taken away from revenue generating activities (like a day job) and that money needs to be recovered somehow. Sullivan has every right to ask for financial support, and as a reader, I have an option on whether I wish to offer my support. Or not.
What I do take issue with is people like me donated money in order for his site to continue. Sure, he said it was until “after the election”, but based on estimates of what Sullivan raised in previous pledge drives, surely he raised enough to continue the site long after that? He took a month long break in August, and is now taking a few more months off. I’m left feeling I gave my money to someone so they can go on vacation.
Supporters are paying for blogging services through their donations – can you imagine telling your boss you’re taking the next two months off even though they’ve paid you for it already? Isn’t this the same thing?
…Anyways, good luck Andrew. Enjoy your European vacation and your novel writing time. But know that next time, I’ll think twice before I hit that PayPal button. I can’t afford to send myself to Europe. I really don’t want to pay for anyone else to go either.
Interestingly, Sullivan has already taken a break from his break to publish fawning e-mails from readers. But he apparently doesn’t have enough bandwidth to respond to Blair, Balko, or the many other bloggers/contributors who rightly feel gipped by his bloghucksterism.
***
Related:
Bill at INDC Journal makes his own pledge to readers/donors.
Gay Patriot, who bought a pricey blogad on Sullivan’s site a few days before the announced hiatus, writes: “I guess I should let my ad on his blog expire, huh?”
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This is a totally digusting act by Sullivan, I dont know if anything else need be said.
Leave Sully alone, he’s AWESOME!
It would seem to me that if this guy truly changed people’s lives, they got what they paid for — assuming those e-mails are genuine. And even if their lives weren’t changed, people paid for entertainment and the affirmation of their views and apparently got it. I run a tiny blog in one little corner of the blogosphere and would never think of asking people to pay to hear my opinions or convictions, although I would gladly donate to read the blogs of people who are truly informative or inspiring — like this one.
Sullivan is persistantly incoherent, self-contradictory and histerical… not a winning combination as public intellectuals go. The constant asseverations throughout the blogosphere to his indespensibility are about to be tested. I’m betting he goes unmissed.
HEH. Looks like Sullivan has decided to cut and run with the bling bling he squeezed out of his loyal readers over the past few years.
Btw, I count a total of 4 links to the Daily (soon to be Weekly) Dish in this post. That means more traffic, which leads to more bandwith problems, which will lead to another bogus fund-raiser. Yay!
Did anyone honestly expect anything *more* from this guy? Though excessive in it’s “lame factor”, I wouldn’t go so far as to say it was unexpected. You have to set the bar low with shills like Sully, that way you won’t be disappointed.
By the way, thanks for the link a month or so ago (via Ace) – turns out that Golson kid hosting the tsunami vids has run into a miniture blog-induced sh*t-storm as a result of calling some 13 year-old kid a “bastard”, and threatening him with copyright infringement lawsuits. LOL.
Full circle baby.
Meh. That Sullivan gets these flights of fancy isn’t that surprising, nor is it surprising that he’s never told his contributors what he’s done with the rest of the money they gave for a specific purpose after he paid his bandwidth bills.
But those folks don’t seem to mind and they’re willing to come back and read guest bloggers until his return – whenever that will be.
His “consumers” don’t seem to be all that disturbed by this and, even though I think the whole arrangement stinks on toast, but I don’t read his blog and I wouldn’t give him a dime, so I really don’t care one way or the other.
It just means that maybe better bloggers like Michelle here can pick up some of the traffic he’ll lose during his sabbatical.
Though, as a side note I don’t remember Michelle taking a big long blogging hiatus while she wrote her book and I don’t ever recall her asking for a penny to keep her blog up and running.
This may just be one of the most unethical things I’ve ever heard.
I had already lost most of the respect I had for Sulivan when he described John Kerry as the conservative candidate for president. Supporting Kerry is one thing but that was too much of a rationalization to swallow.
My reaction to this bit if sleaze…
whatever.
It is beyond me how anyone can contribute money to a blog. With all the voices out there and all the information available, if a site goes under… well – so be it. Find another one you like.
Like Bruce (above comment), I run a small website and I would never in my wildest dreams expect someone to contribute financially to it – intellectual commentary or supportive links – that is a different story.
OJ
I think a lot of you are being anti-market and anti-ownership dolts.
EVERY enterprise fudges about what the cash is for when they raise prices or put a squeeze on labor costs.
Folks, we’re living in an era where compensation for entreprenuers has nothing do with fairness or “ethics.”
You’re a bunch of envious hacks. Andrew is doing the selfish thing, which means he’s doing the right thing. This is the ownership society, people. Join or get out of the way.
Sullivan misrepresented why he was asking for the money. He makes his money writing for Time and The Guardian, and the Free Republic…right? Who needs $200K to write a blog? He specifically asked for money so that he could continue operating his blog:
“So thanks for your open minds and generosity. It has helped keep this completely independent website running for over four years now” and “the site needs some extra cash to keep going at least until the election” Both quotes from his bleg week, 7-25-730, 2004
Michelle posted an entry from a blogger that estimates AS’s costs at $500 a year for bandwidth….even if it was 10 times that, he collected $195,000 too much. He wasn’t honest, and now the people that donated are sending him to France and God-knows-where.
I have a slightly different take on it, Michelle.
I wonder if Andrew has paid all his taxes on the 200 grand. It’s the least he can do, isn’t it, to reduce the deficit he complains about so bitterly.
Andrew is a good man who offers some of the most provocative thought in modern political discourse. The fact that he has diverged from the “republican” playbook has had many out for his blood. I am sorry to see Michelle succomb to that instinct (why the heck should she care about this?), but then again his “Malkin Awards” were scathing. Please reconsider, Michelle (and I luv ya’)…I would like the both of you to remain on my Icon Shelf!
$200K for hi-tech pan handeling? P.T. Barnum would be envious.
I know Andrew had a hissy fit over the marriage amendment and switched from supporting GWB to attacking him and the war and then to supporting Kerry, but I couldn’t quite figure it out. You don’t suppose, having milked the Bush supporters for all he could, that he switched in order to milk the Kerry supporters?
Hmmmm…………
It would be one thing if Sullivan was telling people that they HAD to give, or how much they had to give. But the fact that he’s making a profit off of the blog isn’t indictive of a lack of ethics, especially when he doesn’t know how much will be collected during those drives.
The central point of the fundraiser is also missed here; people donate to his blog because they like it. If they didn’t like it, and didn’t care if he continued it, then they wouldn’t have donated to the blog.
I have only been to Sullivan’s blog on a couple of occasions, mainly when linked by another blog. But from what I know of it, he has a huge following on the blogosphere. Thus, even small donations from a sample of his regular visitors could amount to thousands.
I don’t see how donating to his blog would be another blogger’s business, especially if you’re not donating anything. It sounds as if some people saw the dollar amount Sullivan made off the fundraiser and became jealous that he collected so much money from it.
I think the issue here is that there is no way it should cost $200,000 to host his site. Either he’s getting massively screwed by his hosting company, or he is massively over-representing his costs to his readers.